Fulfilling Public Transportation and Health Targets Still Challenge in São Paulo

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The time spent daily by Nurse Danielly Alves dos Santos, 25, to get to work would be enough for a 227-km drive between São Paulo and Ubatuba, on the northern coast. A resident of São Miguel Paulista, in the far eastern zone, she spends three hours a day to get to work by public transportation, between two buses, train and subway. “I have to leave home at 5 AM to get to work at 8 AM.”

Like the nurse, thousands of São Paulo workers have to wake up at dawn to get to work. A reality that could have been eased if the previous Mayors had fulfilled their target goals. Provided for by law since 2008, this instrument establishes what should be a priority throughout the administrations. Together, former mayors Gilberto Kassab and Fernando Haddad projected 216 km of bus lanes. However, the works were not completed.

Since the law came into force, no mayor has met more than 56 percent of the targets set at the start of his administration. For instance, Bruno Covas, who will seek reelection in November, only delivered 23 percent of the commitments he made upon taking office in April 2018. In addition, the website for monitoring the City Hall’s goals has been offline since February.

Former mayors also struggled with housing targets. After three administrations, 36-year-old Mariana Rosa da Silva is in line awaiting a home. In 2011, she was pulled from her home where she lived with her family, near Hebe Camargo Avenue, in Paraisópolis, in the south zone. “They knocked down my shanty and gave me nothing in return. I spent almost a year living rent-free at a friend’s house with two small children.” In 2012, she began to receive the social rent, a resource paid by the City in an emergency, but she was not provided with housing.

The non-fulfillment of the target plan also has impacts on health. Promised by Kassab, Haddad and Covas, the hospital in Brasilândia, in the north zone, became operational only during the Covid-19 pandemic. Had it been open sooner, 27-year-old confectioner Ricardo Abrantes Brito dos Santos would not have had to take his father to two health units far from home – he died a victim of Sars-Cov-2. “If he had the hospital now, maybe we wouldn’t have run around so much, we’d have a reference of where to go and we’d have more information.”

The country lacks a planning culture, says Gabriela Lotta, a professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and coordinator of the Nucleus of Bureaucracy Studies. “The goal plan, as well as the Multiyear Plan and others, will eventually become a piece of fiction,” she says. “There is a collective disbelief around them.” According to Gabriela, the auditors courts should demand the fulfillment of such commitments. For sociologist Rodrigo Prando, of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, it’s up to voters to monitor the progress of projects. “The big issue is that voters deposit their votes and do not monitor them.”

In the search for feasible targets within the municipal budget and the population’s needs, Rede Nossa São Paulo, the designer of the law that rendered the program obligatory in the city, will launch “reference targets” for the candidates on Tuesday.

Reference

According to the group’s coordinator, Carolina Guimarães, the focus should be on reducing inequality. “We need to see that the city and its problems do not change every four years and that demands and solutions are not right or left-wing issues,” she says.

The program is divided into three areas, with 50 goals in total. This list includes a commitment to regionalize the budget and define investments according to each region’s vulnerability. “If the investment is R$1 billion, M’Boi Mirim in the southern zone would receive, R$352 per capita, while the large center would get R$41. This would help promote what we call an inversion of inequality,” says Igor Pantoja, the group’s mobilization coordinator.

Developed in partnership with the Tide Setubal Foundation, the benchmarks propose short, medium and long-term actions based on already approved laws. “The pandemic has reinforced that isolated or one-off actions are not enough to reverse the enormous and persistent structural inequalities. All sectors need to talk, unite and develop specific and transformative solutions to achieve a fairer São Paulo by 2030, with real opportunities for all, regardless of where they live,” says sociologist Neca Setubal, chair of the foundation’s board.

Former mayors

Former Mayor Fernando Haddad questioned the criterion that considers only 100 percent met goals, and says targets that have been partially met must be considered. “It’s a conceptual misconception,” Haddad says. About the hospital in Brasilândia, he says the the mere pledge should not be compared to progress that has ensured its building. “I got the land, I started the project, I started the work, I left money in the treasury to finish the work. That’s like saying that Kassab and I did the same thing, why didn’t we deliver the hospital?”, he questions.

“The law is a step forward, what has not been a step forward is the assessment of the law, as measured,” Haddad says. “If you start assessing it unfairly, mayors will promise less and less in the future.”

Former Mayor Gilberto Kassab claimed he met 81 percent of the goals in his second term, but included what he considers a “legacy”. In addition to the 100 percent achieved goals, the assessment considers “contracted projects, tenders launched and land defined for works, for instance, instruments that were left as a legacy,” he says.

“The introduction of goals in São Paulo was implemented in [my] administration,” said Kassab, in a note. “The correct definition, with the precise scaling of targets by management, is essential for transparency for the population and better organization of public policies.”

On Saturday, August 15th, the City Hall reported that 27 rather than 25 targets, as stated in the February report, were fully met (38 percent of the total), but failed to specify which ones. In addition to the targets which are considered in an “advanced stage,” according to City Hall, they represent another 55 percent of the plan, which were also not specified. “Only five of the items listed in the plan are under consideration (seven percent). And even in these cases, the administration maintains the expectation of full compliance with the program, which can only be fully assessed at the end of this administration, therefore on December 31st.”

“We emphasize that the Target Program must be analyzed goal by goal because each one has its own features, and the setting of a single index is a mistake because it does not consider these features,” says the City Hall.

Covas is now six months away from accountability.

Shortly before the electoral campaign begins, the Bruno Covas administration, which will seek reelection, completes six months without reporting to the population on the progress of its target plan, an instrument provided by law. The Planeja Sampa website, which compiles data on building deadlines and public policy development, has been offline since February, with no expected return. The city government alleges technical issues due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In April 2019, a year after taking office, Covas reviewed the former plan – presented by then-mayor João Doria – and increased the number of existing targets from 53 to 71. The announced focus was on investment in monitoring actions. Since then, the possible balance, based on data submitted up to February this year, shows that the management delivered 35.2 percent of the commitments undertaken.

The Rede Nossa São Paulo, the organization that conceived the law requiring all elected mayors to present a target program 90 days after taking office, considers the lack of transparency a serious shortcoming by the government, particularly because it is an election year. Without detailed and official data on the Covas administration, voters will have fewer tools to choose in November, according to the network.

The organization also claims that, despite the difficulties, it conducted a detailed survey of the deliveries announced by the administration in the Municipal Gazette. According to this study, 23 percent of the targets were not actually delivered to the population, i.e., they are still in the internal planning stage.

In a note, City Hall claimed technical issues with the website version due to the suspension of non-essential activities during the novel coronavirus pandemic. It further said that the plan is a “guiding document of public policies until the end of management” and that its revision is provided for in municipal legislation. However, the spokesperson failed to provide a deadline for the reinstatement of data.

Covas is the fourth mayor to officially present a target plan for the city. The plan became mandatory in February 2008, when the city council approved an amendment to the city’s organic law that allows new mayors three months after taking office to introduce their commitments for the four-year term.

Since then, Gilberto Kassab and Fernando Haddad have been the only ones to complete a term at the head of the City Hall. Both have left office with just over half of their goals accomplished. Covas, however, was the first to introduce a kind of bonus for civil servants, tied to the fulfillment of targets.

Source: O Estado de S. Paulo